Venture Concept 1

Opportunity

The opportunity that I’ve have discovered brings two ideas into one major idea to remedy a huge problem a majority of the college population face at some point in their college careers. As college students, we are forced to live in apartments and houses that we can’t simply afford by ourselves; instead everyone, even incoming students, will find themselves rooming up with random roommates to help lessen the total expenditure on housing. The potential customers will include college students throughout the nation. Whether they are second and third year students or incoming freshman, the website will be used by the students, apartment complexes, and college dorm administration groups to help sort through the millions of students that enroll every year. Another potential customer base could be students who have moved to big cities to start their career and can’t afford the expensive living arrangements in the big cities. This opportunity presented itself when I ran into the exact situation last year. I had to move from one place to another and it happened last minute; most of the people I knew in Gainesville had found other places to live in with other people and I was left to look for my next roommates on craigslist. Scrolling through the pages of craigslist, I found out many people have the same issue I did. The environment that helps keep this opportunity going is the constant change we students go through every year and the incoming students the colleges get every year. The market is defined to areas around college campuses, mainly apartment complexes and communities built for the students themselves. Demographically, the market is defined by the college student. Most students who are attending have to stick to a budget and this forces them to find places outside of campus living and a little farther away. Mainly students from a middle or low class demographic will find themselves in this market. Customers are satisfying their need mainly through word of mouth and their connections. Most students now will start the hunt for roommates before the Spring semester starts in order to secure the people they want to live with and the place they have in mind. Those that are left will jump to craigslist or let whatever apartment complex they’re moving into pick the next roommate they’ll live with. When it comes to loyalty, I find it hard to believe these students will be loyal to the craigslist method of finding roommates, but the best option still falls on the word of mouth or connections route; students will want to stick to this route the most since they already know the other person and have seen the potential to become roommates. I have a strong belief that this opportunity is huge. Implementing this idea throughout college campuses throughout the nation and the constant influx of new students, will keep this venture concept in its’ prime. Considering the constant changes new and current students go through every year with their housing opportunities, I believe this window of opportunity will be open for quite a while.

Innovation

My innovation brings the ability of “matchmaking” to the roommate search we endeavor as college students. I plan to develop a website where one can find their perfect roommate by answering some questions about themselves and looking over other student profiles to room up together. The surveys and profiles will depict all the interests, like and dislikes, ratings and possible background checks that one can use to select their perfect roommate. The website will start by having the customer create an account, provide an email, and specify the location they wish to move to or that they’re a part of. Once they’ve provided this information, the next step is the questionnaires. These questionnaires will be designed to pinpoint the likes and dislikes of the individual answering them to find the common ground they will have with other individuals. These questionnaires will have about 40 to 50 questions; therefore, we can get a good sense of the what the profile should be for that individual. Once the questions have been answered, the website will produce results with your best matches to other individuals. At this stage, you can browse the individual’s profiles and find out more of what they like and dislike. What sort of arrangement they want in the new lease whether its half a year, a couple months, or a few years. This list will be provided in order for the individual to see the potential that has been uncovered. Once the individual chooses another individual to be their potential roommate, they have the opportunity to see that individuals email or message them through the website but they have to pay at this point. A $15 fee will be assessed if the individual wants to send them a message or get their email information in order to send them their contact information. The $15 fee allows the user to make contact with 3 other individuals; if they want to contact another few individuals, they would have to pay another $15 fee. Another phase of this process will allow the customer to get a background check on a potential roommate before matching with them but at their cost. This background check will have a $10 fee per individual.

Venture Concept

Through this venture concept, I will help solve the constant hassle of finding a roommate you ACTUALLY want to live with and bring a stop to random roommates. This website will help bring two individuals with the same interest into contact to potentially live together without the fear of living with someone you despise. I believe customers will buy this into this innovation because this is a huge problem that students deal with and if they find themselves with the wrong roommates, it can create an overabundance of stress and anxiety. Customers will switch to this product easily because the alternative options include meeting people the day you move in with no knowledge of what kind of person they are. My website helps them find individuals they will most likely grow fond of. There really aren’t many competitors since the only other methods of finding roommates is through word of mouth, craigslist, and the random selection some apartment complexes do. I’m a strong believer in customer satisfaction and support; making them happy will always be my first priority. My price points will fluctuate a little bit depending on what seems fit at the time or until I find the right price to suit the needs of the customer and my company’s. I would organize my business through different roles in the team. Obviously someone would be in charge of the research and development and constructing teams of the website. There will also be a strong customer support and satisfaction team that will only focus on benefiting the customer. Lastly, I will find the right group of marketing experts to help research the potential markets that haven’t been touched or enhancing the existing methods for the same market.

·      The most important resource I have is the intellectual resource my business will develop. Through the intellectual resource, my business will develop better software every time so no competitor can really substitute us. This will also help bring customer satisfaction to higher levels since our constant innovation of the software relies on their feedback.

·      The next opportunity for this business will be to bring the same methods to property owners that want to find tenants suitable enough to lease or rent their properties to. This website will give the property owners the ability to match with the tenants they want without dealing with the hassle of property damage and other issues that can rise from random tenant signees.

·      In five years, I would like to still be a part of this business venture. This business venture has a huge open window to progress and keep being innovative with the constant inflow of college students. As an entrepreneur, I can see myself looking for new opportunities close to the same field this first venture was. The experience gained from this can help grow another opportunity quicker.